Afghanistan: Election Registration Funding

Baroness Amos: My right honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Gareth Thomas) has made the following Statement.
	Ensuring the legitimacy of the Afghan Government within the timescale set down by the Bonn agreement is an important part of the Government's strategy for Afghanistan.
	Elections are due to take place later this year and the Government have already provided £1 million from the Department for International Development (DfID) and £2 million from the joint DfID/FCO/MoD Global Conflict Prevention Pool towards the UN's programme of voter registration in Afghanistan. So far just over 1.2 million of an estimated 10.5 million electorate have been registered.
	DfID will now be providing an additional £6 million to the UN to support the registration process. Combined with a US pledge of 12 million dollars, this takes the total funding from 48 million dollars to 71 million dollars out of a total budget of around 98 million dollars. This will allow registration to continue while we work with other donors to fill the remainder of the shortfall, and help to ensure the success of Afghanistan's first free and fair elections.

S4C: Independent Review

Lord McIntosh of Haringey: My right honourable friend, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Tessa Jowell) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
	Following a request from the S4C Authority, I have commissioned an independent review of S4C, to be carried out by Roger Laughton, head of Bournemouth University Media School. Mr Laughton will be assisted by Meurig Royles as Welsh language assessor to the review.
	The terms of reference for the review are: 1) to assess, in light of the Communication Act's reaffirmation of S4C's status and remit, (a) the efficiency with which S4C utilises the resources made available to deliver its statutory responsibilities, (b) the extent to which other sources of funding, including efficiency savings, could make a greater contribution alongside that which S4C receives as grant in aid, and (c) the extent to which S4C's latest strategic plan provides an effective basis on which to plan for the future; 2) to examine the particular implications for S4C of the Government's proposals on the future of digital broadcasting.
	The review will include: (a) consultation with a wide range of interests, including organisations representative of those sectors where the role of S4C is of particular significance; and (b) consideration, to the extent that the reviewer judges appropriate, of the outcome of and evidence generated by S4C's recent internal review process.
	In addition to the consultation outlined above, there will be an opportunity for members of the public to make representations to the review team, via a website set up by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
	The Government remain committed to the provision by S4C of a high quality, diverse Welsh language television service forming a key part of the public service broadcasting landscape. I was therefore pleased to agree to the S4C Authority's request for a review which could address some of the important challenges S4C faces as it approaches analogue switch-off. The authority has already completed its own internal review and Mr Laughton will be able to take its conclusions into account.
	Ofcom's statutory review of the fulfilment of the public service broadcasting remit will also provide an opportunity to consider S4C's contribution to that wider remit. The relationship between S4C and the BBC will in addition be considered in detail as part of BBC Charter review.
	I have asked Mr Laughton to report back to me at the beginning of May.

Cash Ratio Deposits: Treasury Review

Lord Davies of Oldham: My right honourable friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury has made the following Ministerial Statement.
	Cash Ratio Deposits are non-interest bearing assets deposited with the Bank of England by banks and building societies. They are used by the bank to finance its unremunerated activities, in particular its sterling liquidity operations and its efforts to secure price stability and the stability of the financial system in general, from which these institutions are key beneficiaries. The Cash Ratio Deposit Scheme was placed on a statutory basis when the Bank of England Act became law in 1998. In February 2003, the Paymaster General announced by Written Statement a review of the operation of the statutory scheme in its first five years.
	In a Written Statement of 18 September 2003 in the House of Commons (Official Report, col. 63WS), the Government set out the review's conclusions, one of which was that the minimum threshold for making deposits should be raised from £400 million to £500 million, freeing 18 institutions from the scheme and benefiting all remaining contributing institutions by reducing the level of their deposits by £150,000 each. This proposal would require a change to secondary legislation under the Bank of England Act 1998. HM Treasury has therefore consulted publicly about this change and invited views on the review's other recommendations.
	The Government's response to this consultation exercise was published yesterday. Given the general support among respondents for the proposal set out above, the Government are today laying before Parliament a draft statutory instrument designed to increase the threshold for making deposits under the CRD scheme from £400 million to £500 million, scheduled to come into force on 1 June 2004.